Big Question: What is racism?  After reading Chapter 5, you should have a better understanding of how race is culturally constructed and thus how notions of race can vary from culture to culture. You should also have a new understanding of the difference between individual racism and institutional racism. Both forms of racism have had a profound influence on the development of modern American culture, but individual racism often receives more attention in the media.

• Assignment: Research ONE the examples of racial violence, including the deaths of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Alton Sterling, and consider how institutional racism may have played a role in the deaths of these men.Using the discussion board in HuskyCT:
  • Consider the incidents surrounding how these men died, and discuss what role institutional racism may have played in their death. This a sensitive topic, so be sure to choose your words carefully!
  • You should also incorporate more current examples of racial violence in recent weeks: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, as well as anything else that resonates with you.  Include any sources that you use in your post.

Word Count Requirement:

• First Post (400 words)
• Replies (250 words)

COLLAPSE

窗体顶端

Hey Cole,

Wanted to respond to yours because you did something very similar to me and I think it is very important the parallels that you and I both drew. You talked about the tragic incident of Eric Garner whose death came a year after Trayvon Martin who I talked about and those two events were linked for some time. Especially because the sports world took both of their deaths extremely personally. That statement of “I can’t breathe” will live forever because of Eric Garner just as the symbolism of the hoodie that Trayvon Martin was wearing will. Then, you related Garner’s case to George Floyd’s case which was very impactful because immediately when I heard of the George Floyd incident, I too thought of Eric Garner. The statement of “I can’t breathe” again resurfaced with this case but this time with a police officer putting their knee on the neck of Floyd whereas Garner was physically choked. Both horrific incidents involving law enforcement abusing their power. With the cases I brought up it was none authority figures thinking they had the right to take the law into their own hands and enacting punishment on those who were innocent. I think what me and you realized is that these incidents being so similar is not a coincidence and that so many black people in this country live in fear of police because black people are rarely given justice when there is wrongdoing. These events will continue to repeat if we do not push for reform.

窗体底端

In mid July in 2014, the United States of America witnessed yet another colored man killed by a police officer. It happened in New York City when Eric Garner was thought to be selling tax stamp free cigarettes. After explaining to several officers that he was not selling cigarettes, now ex NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo arrested Eric all while putting him in a very aggressive chokehold. Not only did the officers offer no assistance to Eric, but they actually aided Daniels attempt to arrest this man while choking him. After the arrest took place it was reported that during this scrum Eric had shouted out 11 times to the officers that he could not breath. He eventually lost consciousness and proceeded to die about an hour later in the hospital. The autopsy showed that Eric died from compression of the neck which means he was killed because of the chokehold that officer Pantaleo put him in.

Fast forward about 6 years later, in 2020, an extremely similar scenario took place in Minnesota on May 25th when Geroge Floyd was arrested and brutally murdered almost the same way. Floyd had allegedly used a counterfeit bill which was what led to his arrest. When arrested, now ex police officer Derek Chauvin, had pressed his knee onto George’s neck for over 7 minutes, while reported that Floyd shouted that he could not breath over 20 times. The day after the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis Police Department decided to fire all of the officers on hand for the event that day. This eventually led to Floyd’s death and this horrible act was caught on video and spread all over the United States bringing uproar in the colored community. This led to many protests all throughout America. Millions of people have been protesting for equal rights like the organization Black Lives Matter.

I think that lately in our country there has been a lot more attention towards institutional racism opposed to individual racism. I make this argument because there is no denying that recently there have been many instances of national protests. These have formed not because of racism against a specific individual, but because a lot of people feel that an entire system in the law enforcement may have a stigma against people of color. Institutional racism is racism towards a group of people by the existence of laws or policies. It came to the point where in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, people were valuing going out to protest opposed to staying inside trying to stop the spread of Covid-19. It seems to me that these officers judging by the skin color of their possible suspects, were waiting for one wrong move by either of them so that their acts would be justified. It really is sad what is happening in the country and I believe it is a result of institutional racism.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/nyregion/eric-garner-police-chokehold-staten-island.html